Seller Isn’t Hurrying

Expert, localized Los Angeles answers provided by Heather Roy

Seller Isn’t Hurrying
	Dear Ms. Lank: We are the buyers listed on an accepted and signed purchase offer. The contract states that the closing was to take place on or before today. As of yet, we have not even received that abstract from the seller's attorney to review. We have tried contacting the seller's attorney via email and telephone with no response. The broker tells us that no closing information is available. Are we still bound by the contract? How long do we have to "wait around"? It is a cash transaction with no banks involved, so there is nothing on our end holding up the closing. Also, our purchase offer itself expired on May 25, 2005 but they didn’t accept it till May 28.

	I can’t tell if you want to get things moving or would like to get out of the deal altogether. In either case, your own lawyer should be handling this. My guess is that the contract is still in force even if the closing date has come and gone. Your lawyer may have some advice about how to bring the sellers to the closing table, perhaps with the powerful legal maneuver called “making time of the essence.” It really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish at this point.
	Edith Originally published on August 6, 2005

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